Six Questions with H. Charles Beil (aka The Treasure Man): The Gallows Harbor Treasure Hunt and His Other Hidden Treasure Caches

In a previous Six Questions with the Treasure Man, we learned H. Charles Beil is on a mission to hide treasure caches all across the states.  If you find them, you can keep them!  These hidden treasures range in value from anywhere to a few hundred dollars to thousands. Clues to these can be found on the MW Forum.

However, we heard recent news of an upcoming Treasure Cache that will likely far surpass the value of all of his previous hidden caches put together!  It is the Gallows Harbor Treasure Hunt. Clues to discover the locations of this amazing treasure will be contained in a series of books.  (scheduled release spring/summer 2020)

The Treasure Man is a historical archaeologist with a Bachelor Degree in History. He has been an avid treasure hunter all his life and enjoys delving deep into, not only the mountains, but also the historical societies, libraries, and museums. The clues he finds in these sometimes neglected places, provides him the needed facts to discover real life hidden treasure from centuries ago.  He might even use some of these unearthed details as clues to lead you to his hidden treasures!  You never know!

Let’s learn more about his incredible adventures, and his upcoming book series!   Enjoy!

Six Questions with The Treasure Man:

• 1Q) Thanks for this opportunity to learn more about your Indiana Jones like lifestyle, and upcoming treasure hunt!  I’d first like to ask though, at what age did you become interested in history, archaeology, and exploring lost treasures? What was one of the first treasures you ever found?

I began treasure hunting at a very early age of necessity. We lived in a rundown 3 room trailer next to a large garbage dump. We didn’t have money. I started hunting the dump at about five years old beating the rats back with a stick and finding treasure in the refuse. In those days we turned in the soda bottles I found for the deposits and other items I found of value I’d sell to the other trailer people for a penny, nickel or dime or trade them. One of my first real treasures was a gun that I found. Not knowing its value I traded it for a watermelon to the foreign man who worked in the produce yards in Pittsburgh. I remember trying to carry home the 25lb melon, dropping it and watching it smash.

Two years later I was taken in by my grandparents. I liked “old” people. I suppose that I was fortunate that I had great-grandparents who were living as well. Everyone around me was old. We did things the old ways, gardening, hunting, fishing, cooking, preserving food. I learned an appreciation for traditional living and listened to the stories of the WW1 and WW2 Veterans as I fought other kids for money on the VFW lawn while the old guys bet on me. I liked their histories even at that young age. There was adventure in those stories that was thrilling.

With my garbage dump behind me I learned to explore the storm sewers with a flaming torch like tom sawyer looking for lost coins and to scavenge from abandoned houses in the hills. Bottles were still a good source of income for a kid if you knew the secret places to find them.  

• 2Q)You warn us your upcoming Gallows Harbor Treasure Hunt might hold some chilling tales.  The hunt is in form of a series of books, categorized as historical fiction.  How much of the books are based on real events? What fascinated you about Gallows Harbor that you wanted to create an exciting novel and treasure hunt around it? Can you share some of the history or stories of this place?

Gallows Harbor is even more ominous than its name reveals and so are the murders that have taken place there. In fact another body was found here just a week or two ago. A week after I canoed into the ghost town and stayed overnight. It’s a place people avoid and generally only speak about in whispers. The history of occult practice flows back to Native America in this place with Seneca names that translate to the “Devil’s Hopyard”, “Bloody Run” and “Moravian Creek”. These denote a spiritual presence of hundreds of years. That portion of my story is true. As is the history of the town and of logging on the Susquehanna River. 

The history of witchcraft in this area and Salem Village is also true. The escape of the Bradbury family from Salem to an unknown location is true as well as is the history of other locations in my book. The persecutions by Cotton Mather and John Hawthorne are well documented in the court records and transcripts of the hangings.

To me there is a peculiar beauty in decay. And this is one of the things that I find fascinating in the ghost towns that I rediscover. I chose to use this ghost town as the setting of my story because it is one that can really send a shiver up your spine when you see the stone alter used for sacrifice or the memorial marker of a disabled fifteen year old girl that was lured to Gallows Harbor and hung by her peers. At night the place can be utterly terrifying for some.

I want a treasure hunt radically different from all others. Not just a puzzle, painting, poem or legend. Gallows Harbor is a series of books that will immerse you into the occult as it was practiced in real places by real people with an objective of finding the money, gems and riches left behind by them. Which I have hidden for you to find. I tell the story as more or less a first person narration by injecting the main character into the period and lives of these people, interacting with them in the development of their characters while creating the age old struggle of good versus evil and the fall into darkness of the main character as a stern warning that perhaps it’s best not to play with these things. This tale will take you across three states and leave seven treasures to be discovered making it the largest treasure hunt in America. As for value, well you’ll have to wait for that disclosure but I think you’ll be shocked.  

• 3Q)What are some items in the Gallows Harbor treasure cache?  Where did you get the precious relics to place in the treasure? Will these treasures be found buried or just well hidden?

There are seven or possibly eight treasures in this hunt. We’re talking of adding an eighth treasure that will set America on its heels. It’s very unique. The first two treasures will be buried/hidden in November 2019. Treasure #1 is a crystal skull filled with money and hundreds of carats of gems and signed by Dan Akroyd the actor. Treasure #2 is called the “Family Chest” and is a large brass chest filled with pewter, sterling, coins and gems. Treasure #3 are the healing stones and custom made fortune telling or tarot cards. Treasure #4 is the puzzle box treasure. Open it wrong and you will destroy its most valuable contents. It’s a unique box that I designed and built that will pit the finder against me in intellect if they want what is inside. Treasure #5 is a second “Family Chest”. Treasure #6 is the Witch’s Apothecary. A collection of potions, herbs, historical items, gems, coins and a custom Grimoire that I am told is anthropodermic bibliopegy. Treasure #7 is the Hidden Hoard of Gallows Harbor. Treasure #8 is a secret that will be revealed at a future date.

I’ve been a treasure hunter for 50 years. You tend to collect a lot of things over that length of time, things you find, collected and purchased from other collectors. A lot of this is what is going into this hunt.

I’m trying to hide these treasures rather than bury them. Burying treasure really limits some folks from participating in a hunt and it limits where I can put treasure in some instances. Every state has different laws and I try hard not to step on anyone’s toes while creating a great adventure.

• 4Q)We are all looking forward to the release of the series.  Are there any details about the treasure hunt you can share with us now?  Like what states will be involved? Will all the locations be on the Eastern coast or spread from coast to coast? How might the clues be given in form of a map, codes to break, or subtle other ways?

Well since Forrest has his treasure out West I decided to do an Eastern treasure hunt that will span several states thereby giving more folks the opportunity to find something. The clues will be given in the books, maps and videos. There will be some coded messages as well as interactions on the web and possibly even a comic book. I’m currently discussing that with an artist.

• 5Q)Along with the Gallows Harbor Treasure Hunt, you have released 12 other treasure hunts, of which 4 have been found. You also have Booklets with clues yet to release for additional treasure caches you have hidden.  You’re providing such a wonderful chance for adventures. Thank you. How do you feel when one is found?  Would you like them stay hidden for months, years, or longer? 

When I buried my first treasure I intended for it never to be found and to be my legacy. Well my legacy only lasted ten months when I learned that you all are better at finding treasure than I am at burying it. It was an expensive lesson since it was 27lbs of gold, silver, gems, jewelry and money. Then the stories started to flow into me about the tremendous time people were having searching for the treasure and it made it all worthwhile. I saw families reunited over my treasure and folks getting out experiencing the outdoors as a family. It was a good feeling and it made me want to bury more treasure.

I have treasures that have been hidden for several years that I haven’t had time to write a book about. The Gallows Harbor project has taken up all of my time for over two years and now with the addition of the new Treasureman Group on Facebook I barely have time for it. I am getting help however from a wonderful young woman named Candy Hershey. She is the new Social Media Manager for Treasure Illustrated LLC and is doing an outstanding job in running everything.

I’m really not overly concerned any longer about how long my treasures stay hidden. Although I would like as many people as possible to experience these hunts. There is nothing like the allure of treasure; to have and to hold, secret things from secret places. These are the things that dreams are made of and I think possibly one or two will remain after I am gone and cause people to stop and think about an old treasure hunter who wanted to give back to the community that he dearly loved.   

• 6Q)From a previous Six Questions, you had shared advice on how to get involved in treasure hunting or metal detecting. I feel there are many who ‘start’, but soon get discouraged. Can you offer any advice of encouragement to keep going or on how to persevere? Have you ever been discouraged on a hunt, and what might have helped you?

Treasure comes in many forms. There’s the kind that glitters. The kind that makes your heart race with excitement. The time you get to spend with your family engaged in a wholesome family activity that will become a cherished memory. There’s the kind that will give you sudden financial affluence. And there are historical treasures or the material culture that tell us a story of a site or person. There is a treasure hunting niche for everyone. Whether you like finding old bottles, war relics, ghost towns, coins on a sandy beach or in old parks or like to cache hunt, research, wreck dive or locate abandoned mines that contain gold, silver or other precious metals or challenge yourself with complex puzzles, ciphers and codes. There is a place for everyone in treasure hunting that will be exciting and rewarding.

It took Thomas Edison 1000 tries to invent the light bulb. When asked by a reporter how it felt to have failed 1000 times Edison replied, “I did not fail 1000 times. Inventing the light bulb was a process with 1000 steps.” So it is sometimes with treasure hunting. There are only so many places where a treasure you are searching for isn’t. And every time you eliminate one of those places you are one step closer to finding it.

I’ve had more than my share of success as a treasure hunter. 90% of what I do is done at my desk, research. The most valuable lesson that I can impart is to be absolutely certain that the treasure you want to search for exists. I have witnessed countless men being set on epic quests for things that never existed. Chasing the fanciful imaginations of writers. Locate primary sources for a lost treasure if possible before investing your time and money.

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